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Against Heresies #5
Against Heresies 5
2. If, again, they refer to any cause on account of which their Father does not impart life to bodies, then that cause must necessarily appear superior to the Father, since it restrains Him from the exercise of His benevolence; and His benevolence will thus be proved weak, on account of that cause which they bring forward. Now every one must perceive that bodies are capable of receiving life. For they live to the extent that God pleases that they should live.
92 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 188
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About the author
Irenaeus of Lyons
118 books100 followersSt. Irenaeus (2nd cenutry C.E. – c. 202) was Bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul, then a part of the Roman Empire (now Lyon, France). He was an early church father and apologist, and his writings were formative in the early development of Christian theology. Irenaeus' best-known book, Adversus Haereses or Against Heresies (c. 180) is a detailed attack on Gnosticism, which was then a serious threat to the Church, and especially on the system of the Gnostic Valentinus.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 14, 2022
The concluding book of Irenaeus's Adversus Haereses continues his sustained attack on the so-called Gnostics and also provides a robust defense of the doctrines of Christ's incarnation and resurrection. In the course of his argumentation, Irenaeus delivers orthodox teachings on flesh, the soul, life and death, the typology of Eve, the stratagems of the devil, the coming of the antichrist, the resurrection of all flesh, and the final judgment. In the final five chapters Irenaeus advances a millenarian position on the end times, noting that the passages from Isaiah and Ezekiel that illustrate the flourishing of the just seem to precede the judgment (cf. how the final verse of Isaiah comes after the numerous final eschatological passages, or, how the thousand years of Revelation 20 precedes the descent of Jerusalem in Revelation 21). In this, Irenaeus and the other early Christian writers who advanced a chialist view, such as Hippolytus, have been controversial. Much ink has been spilled on this, so I'll move on to some of my reflections on this book as well as the entire work.
To read Irenaeus is a refreshing exercise. His proximity to the "Presbyters" (disciples of the Apostles) is intriguing and tantalizing. His formulations of Christian dogma are concise and memorable, never simplistic or reductionistic. His focus on the "Totus Christus" rather than an individual aspect of Christ's ministry (such as His salvific death apart from His glorification, or His parabolic teaching apart from His perfect obedience), teaches us to direct our gaze to the entire 'mosaic' of the Son, and not to the disordered 'fox' of the heretics, accentuating some elements at the expense of others and disrupting the overall picture. Irenaeus's recapitulation is such a view that honors the Totus Christus; in His eternal power, glory and wisdom; in His typological and prophetic appearances; by His incarnation, obedience, suffering, death, resurrection, ascension, and glorification, Christ Jesus has demonstrated that He is Son of God and Son of Man, the One true Mediator and Teacher for mankind. Irenaeus's reading of the Old Testament Scriptures is, like Justin's, ever in the service of the Church's Christology. Indeed, the Scriptures don't merely contain some prophecies of Christ; they are wholly and fully prophetical, and from their beginning to their end, they have Christ in view, since the writers "saw" Christ's day (John 8:56) and anticipated His salvation. Finally, Irenaeus's key formulation, that what the prophets foresaw, the Lord taught, the Apostles 'traditioned,' and the Church now grants as nourishment: the one Holy Faith.
In one noteworthy part, Irenaeus gives the ancient understanding of the prescriptions surrounding "clean animals." Pointing out how even this is typological, Irenaeus writes, "Who then are the clean? Those who make their way by faith steadily toward the Father and the Son; for this is denoted by the steadiness of those which divide the hoof; and they meditate day and night upon the words of God, that they may be adorned with good works... The unclean, however, are those which do neither divine the hoof nor ruminate; that is, those persons who have neither faith in God, nor do meditate on His words: and such is the abomination of the Gentiles. But as to those animals which do indeed chew the cud, but have not the double hoof, and are themselves unclean, we hav in them a figurative description of the Jews, who certainly have the words of God in their mouth, but who do not fix their rooted steadfastness in the Father and in the Son; wherefore they are an unstable generation" (5.8.4).
Another section I'll point out is in ch. 26 when Irenaeus relates a tradition going back to Justin (and thus to the Apostles) that Satan did not openly blaspheme God until the coming of Christ in the flesh since he did not yet know his own "sentence" (eternal fire prepared for him and the apostate angels). In other words, the Satan of the Old Testament is the accuser, while after the Incarnation and in the New Testament, he is the "roaring lion" who curses God. Following this chapter, Irenaeus has a significant view of eternal punishment; those who cast away the good things of God through their apostasy end up suffering not because God directly scourges them, but because they are "destitute of all that is good." And being without anything good, that is, without God's eternal goods, means to be in unutterable suffering and darkness, and that, self-chosen. The loss of the good is the eternal bad, not a bad that God thrusts upon unwitting people, but that those who have blinded themselves have freely entered.
Just like in books 3 and 4, this final book also has some notable, beautiful confessions of Christ's life, death, and ministry. I'll include a few in my review:
"...The Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself" (5.Preface).
"Since the Lord thus has redeemed us through His own blood, giving His soul for our souls, and His flesh for our flesh, and has also poured out the Spirit of the Father for the union and communion of God and man, imparting indeed God to men by means of the Spirit, and, on the other hand, attaching man to God by His own incarnation, and bestowing upon us at His coming immortality durably and truly, by means of communion with God, - all the doctrines of the heretics fall to ruin" (5.1.1.) (Note; I think this is one of the most important soteriological statements in all of AH.)
"For by the hands of the Father, that is, by the Son and the Holy Spirit, man, and not merely a part of man, was made in the lioness of God. Now the soul and the spirit are certainly a part of the man, but certainly not the man; for th perfect man consists in the commingling and the union of the soul receiving the spirit of the Father, and the admixture of that fleshly nature which was moulded after the image of God" (5.6.1).
"But now, by means of communion with Himself, the Lord has reconciled man to God the Father, in reconciling us to Himself by the Boyd of His own flesh, and redeeming us by His own blood... And in every Epistle the apostle plainly testifies, that through the flesh of our Lord, and through His blood, we have been saved" (5.14.3).
"...in the last times the very same Word of God came to call man, reminding him of his doings, living in which he had been hidden from the Lord. For just as at that time God spake to Adam at eventide, searching him out; so in the last times, by means of the same voice, searching out his posterity, He has visited them" (5.15.4).
"And then, again, this Word was manifested when the Word of God was made man, assimilating Himself to man, and man to Himself, so that by means of his resemblance to the Son, man might become precious to the Father. For in times long past, it was said that man was crated after the image of God, but it was not actually shown; for the Word was as yet invisible, after whose image man was created. Wherefore also he did easily lose the similitude. When, however, the Word of God became flesh, He confirmed both these: for He both showed froth the image truly, since He became Himself what was His image; and He re-established the similitude after a sure manner, by assimilating man to the invisible Father through means of the invisible Word" (5.16.2).
"And thus One God the Father is declared, who is above all, and through all, and in all. The Father is indeed above all, and He is the Head of Christ; but the Word is through all things, and is Himself the Head of the Church; while the Spirit is in us all, and He is the living water, which the Lord grants to those who rightly believe in Him, and love Him, and who know that 'there is one Father, who is above all, and through all, and in us all'" (5.18.2) (Note: I think this is one of Irenaeus's clearest and most interesting illustrations towards explaining the Trinity, though the term "Trinity" is first used by Tertullian.)
"For by summing up in Himself the whole human race from the beginning to the end, He has also summed up its death. From this it is clear that the Lord suffered death, in obedience to His Father, upon that day on which Adam died while he disobeyed God [that is, the sixth day]" (5.23.2).
To read Irenaeus is a refreshing exercise. His proximity to the "Presbyters" (disciples of the Apostles) is intriguing and tantalizing. His formulations of Christian dogma are concise and memorable, never simplistic or reductionistic. His focus on the "Totus Christus" rather than an individual aspect of Christ's ministry (such as His salvific death apart from His glorification, or His parabolic teaching apart from His perfect obedience), teaches us to direct our gaze to the entire 'mosaic' of the Son, and not to the disordered 'fox' of the heretics, accentuating some elements at the expense of others and disrupting the overall picture. Irenaeus's recapitulation is such a view that honors the Totus Christus; in His eternal power, glory and wisdom; in His typological and prophetic appearances; by His incarnation, obedience, suffering, death, resurrection, ascension, and glorification, Christ Jesus has demonstrated that He is Son of God and Son of Man, the One true Mediator and Teacher for mankind. Irenaeus's reading of the Old Testament Scriptures is, like Justin's, ever in the service of the Church's Christology. Indeed, the Scriptures don't merely contain some prophecies of Christ; they are wholly and fully prophetical, and from their beginning to their end, they have Christ in view, since the writers "saw" Christ's day (John 8:56) and anticipated His salvation. Finally, Irenaeus's key formulation, that what the prophets foresaw, the Lord taught, the Apostles 'traditioned,' and the Church now grants as nourishment: the one Holy Faith.
In one noteworthy part, Irenaeus gives the ancient understanding of the prescriptions surrounding "clean animals." Pointing out how even this is typological, Irenaeus writes, "Who then are the clean? Those who make their way by faith steadily toward the Father and the Son; for this is denoted by the steadiness of those which divide the hoof; and they meditate day and night upon the words of God, that they may be adorned with good works... The unclean, however, are those which do neither divine the hoof nor ruminate; that is, those persons who have neither faith in God, nor do meditate on His words: and such is the abomination of the Gentiles. But as to those animals which do indeed chew the cud, but have not the double hoof, and are themselves unclean, we hav in them a figurative description of the Jews, who certainly have the words of God in their mouth, but who do not fix their rooted steadfastness in the Father and in the Son; wherefore they are an unstable generation" (5.8.4).
Another section I'll point out is in ch. 26 when Irenaeus relates a tradition going back to Justin (and thus to the Apostles) that Satan did not openly blaspheme God until the coming of Christ in the flesh since he did not yet know his own "sentence" (eternal fire prepared for him and the apostate angels). In other words, the Satan of the Old Testament is the accuser, while after the Incarnation and in the New Testament, he is the "roaring lion" who curses God. Following this chapter, Irenaeus has a significant view of eternal punishment; those who cast away the good things of God through their apostasy end up suffering not because God directly scourges them, but because they are "destitute of all that is good." And being without anything good, that is, without God's eternal goods, means to be in unutterable suffering and darkness, and that, self-chosen. The loss of the good is the eternal bad, not a bad that God thrusts upon unwitting people, but that those who have blinded themselves have freely entered.
Just like in books 3 and 4, this final book also has some notable, beautiful confessions of Christ's life, death, and ministry. I'll include a few in my review:
"...The Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself" (5.Preface).
"Since the Lord thus has redeemed us through His own blood, giving His soul for our souls, and His flesh for our flesh, and has also poured out the Spirit of the Father for the union and communion of God and man, imparting indeed God to men by means of the Spirit, and, on the other hand, attaching man to God by His own incarnation, and bestowing upon us at His coming immortality durably and truly, by means of communion with God, - all the doctrines of the heretics fall to ruin" (5.1.1.) (Note; I think this is one of the most important soteriological statements in all of AH.)
"For by the hands of the Father, that is, by the Son and the Holy Spirit, man, and not merely a part of man, was made in the lioness of God. Now the soul and the spirit are certainly a part of the man, but certainly not the man; for th perfect man consists in the commingling and the union of the soul receiving the spirit of the Father, and the admixture of that fleshly nature which was moulded after the image of God" (5.6.1).
"But now, by means of communion with Himself, the Lord has reconciled man to God the Father, in reconciling us to Himself by the Boyd of His own flesh, and redeeming us by His own blood... And in every Epistle the apostle plainly testifies, that through the flesh of our Lord, and through His blood, we have been saved" (5.14.3).
"...in the last times the very same Word of God came to call man, reminding him of his doings, living in which he had been hidden from the Lord. For just as at that time God spake to Adam at eventide, searching him out; so in the last times, by means of the same voice, searching out his posterity, He has visited them" (5.15.4).
"And then, again, this Word was manifested when the Word of God was made man, assimilating Himself to man, and man to Himself, so that by means of his resemblance to the Son, man might become precious to the Father. For in times long past, it was said that man was crated after the image of God, but it was not actually shown; for the Word was as yet invisible, after whose image man was created. Wherefore also he did easily lose the similitude. When, however, the Word of God became flesh, He confirmed both these: for He both showed froth the image truly, since He became Himself what was His image; and He re-established the similitude after a sure manner, by assimilating man to the invisible Father through means of the invisible Word" (5.16.2).
"And thus One God the Father is declared, who is above all, and through all, and in all. The Father is indeed above all, and He is the Head of Christ; but the Word is through all things, and is Himself the Head of the Church; while the Spirit is in us all, and He is the living water, which the Lord grants to those who rightly believe in Him, and love Him, and who know that 'there is one Father, who is above all, and through all, and in us all'" (5.18.2) (Note: I think this is one of Irenaeus's clearest and most interesting illustrations towards explaining the Trinity, though the term "Trinity" is first used by Tertullian.)
"For by summing up in Himself the whole human race from the beginning to the end, He has also summed up its death. From this it is clear that the Lord suffered death, in obedience to His Father, upon that day on which Adam died while he disobeyed God [that is, the sixth day]" (5.23.2).
May 31, 2022
Interesting that Irenaeus wrote that the apostles believed that the antichrist would come from the tribe of Dan.
November 3, 2015
By reading St. Irenaeus you will see Orthodoxy encapsulated (for the most part).
It ss a lot of good dense reading, a notebook for annotation and a Bible for marking are recommended.
It ss a lot of good dense reading, a notebook for annotation and a Bible for marking are recommended.
April 1, 2017
Book 5 gives a summary of Irenaeus' eschatology as well as a good restatement of his christology and doctrine of the resurrection. Super solid and incredibly interesting. Irenaeus is definitely my favorite church father of the first 3 centuries.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews